Category: chicago national league ball club

Sometimes, you just need to quote drop

“I felt I let the city of Chicago down. I caused the loss. I was aggressive at the wrong time, and I’m sorry. I have to do my best to make a better judgment call.” – Third Base Coach Wendell Kim.

Wilbon on today’s PTI: [the cubs will be better because] “they have not had Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Sammy Sosa and Alex Gonzalez at shortstop together.”

At that point, I lost it.

Alex S. Gonzalez. Well, it’s a nice idea anyway.

– Leave to go to game from Jim’s house at 4:30
– Get into 3 separate 1 MPH stop and go traffic jams, including one agonizingly close to the park while we take bets on what inning we’ll get there
– Pay $12 for preferred parking (ie: parking on the curb and .3 of a mile away from the park)
– Get to my seats in the top of the third, only to have to deal with kicking people out of my seats. (Sadly, they were mildly cute.)
– Long foods lines because of volunteer staffing not prepared for this many people (which seemed consistent throughout the park; lord knows what’d happen if the Brewers could draw on their own)
– Two whole Cubs hits while we’re there!
– Swept Dominated by the Brewers.
– Decide to try and wait out the traffic by stopping at the Fridays, and shockingly find an empty table.
– Waiter earns every cent of our $0.00 tip. How hard can it be to get napkins. Or to come back once an hour.
– Leave the park at 11:00 – 1h20min after the game has ended, with all but the in-park (and not that big) Fridays cleared out – and find a horrible traffic jam.
– Get stuck in an hour long 1MPH stop and go traffic jam around the Lake Forest Oasis, as they’ve bizarrely opted to shut down two lanes when they only needed one, forcing three full lanes of traffic to merge together.
– Drop people off at Jim’s at 2:00am. 10h30 minute trip, only 2h of a brutal game.
– Stop for ice cream shake!!!!!!!
– Get home at 2:30am
– Wake up at 8:00 to go to work.

Public Transportation or forget it. Tickets will probably be just as scarce next year for Wrigley, but unless you want an all day thing or don’t mind staying overnight in Milwaukee, skip the Cubs/Brewers idea. For the same hassle, you might as well buy a plane ticket and follow them some place else.

It was a thoughtful birthday gift, though. I’m going to have to edit the story when I tell them about it.

I never want to talk about this again.

When the White Sox gave the M’s a treasure chest for Freddy Garcia, they needed to do two things to not make it horrible White Sox trade: pitch good and sign him long term.

One Down: Garcia signs for 3 years, $9 mil per.

Quick comparable contracts:
BAL Ponson 3y left/7.5 mil per
SFG Schmidt 2y/8.5 (w/option for 3rd for 10)
NYY Contreras 2y/8.67
NYM Leiter 2y/9
HOU Pettite 4y/10.5
PHI Millwood 1y/11
ANA Colon 4/12.5

(Dugout Dollars)

I think it’s a pretty decent number. Now all he needs to go is 14-1, and we’ve got the Red Baron all over again.

Bob Brenly fired – MLB.com

You can only be rumored to be fired for so long, I guess.

This job has Mark Grace’s name written all over it – after this season. Brenly was popular enough that smart people don’t want to be the one seen as running him out of town.

Oh no grand slam – YES FOUL BALL.

To: Carlos Beltran
From: Me

STOP IT ALREADY. You’re the greatest player in the freaking world, okay, I get it.

Also, I hear the AL’s a great place to play! You totally want to to sign back over there next season. Houston’s icky and has awful uniforms and a stadium with a changing name and who really wants to put up with all that? You shouldn’t have to. And the hill! Do you really want to deal with the hill on a full time basis?

C’mon, you know the Yankees will give you lots of money. Red Sox too. In fact, they’d probably give you even more if you go to them right this instant. You should demand a trade today!

In the meantime, can you take it easy on us? Or at least do the same to other teams?

Thanks.

presented without comment: Corey Patterson’s P/PA and OPS per month

Time	Pitches Per PA	OPS
APR 04	3.19	.820
MAY 04	3.27	.691
JUN 04	3.69	.932

(as of 06/30)

The only good thing about the White Sox announcer is when someone hits a home run off the Sox and they shut up and you can laugh and laugh at them. Thank you Mark.

Only one day game, but I’ve got nothing for it. I was sure I was going to squeeze in it somehow.

Best Game
NYM (35-36) vs NYY (45-25)
Al Leiter (2-2, 2.14) vs Brad Halsey (1-0, 3.18)

Page 2’s Daily Quicke rated this as the best interleague rivalarly (repeating the same thing in two different sections, so we know I’m not the only one proofreading here). Not that I have an anti-East Cost bias bias or anything, but this is a series between a first place team and a third place/below .500 team. The Chicago series (two seconds) and the LA series (a second and a third, but the third is much better) are much more meaningful then the Subway Series.

Someone must’ve gotten around to fixing the Questec system in Shea this season, because Leiter’s got some outstanding home numbers.

Home: 2W, 0L, 5GS, 32 IP, .221 SLG, .287 OBA, 1.13 ERA
Away: 0W, 2L, 6GS, 31 IP, .382 SLG, .341 OBA, 3.19 ERA

Unfortunatly, this is the AL home weekend.

Mets As A Staff
Home: 3.27 ERA (1st), .358 SLG (1st), .318 OBA (8th)
Away: 3.87 ERA (3rd), .391 SLG (3th), .323 OBA (3rd)

Worst Game
MON (24-46) vs TOR (31-41)
Zach Day (5-7, 3.30) vs Josh Towers (1-2, 5.33)

It’s the disappionting versus the disappionting! What a thrilling series. Obviously, there’s a work slow down in effect to protest labor unrest in hockey. Could spell tragedy for this game.

How far below expectiations has the hitting been for both teams?

excellent (> 90 percentile PECOTA forecast)
TOR F Menechino
TOR G Zaun

above average (60-90 percentile PECOTA forecast)
TOR O Hudson
MON E Chavez

average (40-60 percentile PECOTA forecast)
TOR V Wells (but a massive power drop)
TOR C Gomez
TOR F Catalanotto
TOR C Gomez
MON J Rivera
MON T Sledge
MON B Schneider
MON B Wilkerson

below average (10-40 percentile PECOTA forecast)
TOR T Batista
MON N Johnson
MON J Vidro

horrible (> 10 percentile PECOTA forecast)
TOR E Hinske
TOR J Phelps
TOR C Delgado (although this is putting it mildly)
MON O Cabrera

(Top 9 per team. BP didn’t forecast Reed Johnson, so I added in Greg Zaun)

You know, I love saying Franky Menechino as much as the next guy, but something’s gotten seriously screwed up when he’s the best slugging Blue Jay this season. Everyone’s going to have people who break out and those who fall back, but the Blue Jays unfortunatly have those people swapped around.

Expos, on the other hand, have no one breaking out. Endy Chavez is only considered above average because he’s just barely replacement level, and the predicitons for him weren’t nearly that kind. Vidro and Cabrera not hitting up to expectations, but no one else is picking up the load. Which is the difference between a bad team (Blue Jays) and a vulgarly bad team (Expos.)

Closest Game
SFG (41-32) vs OAK (40-31)
Jason Schmidt (9-2, 2.26) vs Barry Zito (4-4, 4.81)

Ooooooooh. And this series is better than Yankees/Mets too.

What was the Beane stratgy from Moneyball? Something like “you spend the first two months evaluating your team, you spend the second two months trying to make it later, and you spend the last two months letting it play out”? We’re solidly in the middle two months now.

Is Dotel the reliable missing piece for the bullpen? My recent memories of him are all biased because of the Cubs 4 game sweep in Houston, where Dotel a save. BP’s metrics rate him as average; similar runs protected to Amaury Telemaco, similair value over replacement player as Julian Tavarez, neither of which will be fetching Carlos Beltran in a deal this year or any other.

This does somewhat seem an experment to test a theory on the A’s part. There’s been talk about the A’s lacking a high speed fastball pitcher on the staff to balance out the guys who get by more on a location and break. Dotel obviously fits that description.

I think they’re going to end up doing okay on this deal, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough.

Lopsided Game
STL (43-29) vs KCR (28-41)
Woody Williams (5-6, 4.66) vs Zach Greinke (1-3, 3.00)

This should be an intersting test for young Mr. Greinke, who really only owes the bad record to the 2.7 runs per game of support he’s getting. If he can get thru the Cardinals lineup, he may be as good as advertised.

Not to be pointlessly overdramatic here, but these six interleague games may end up playing a huge impact in the final NL Central standings and the future of our universe as we know it; the Cardinals are getting a huge break to play the Royals, while the Cubs and Brewers play the top two in the AL Central and Houston plays the top in AL West. There’s a slight different in quality of play, even before considering who just got shipped out of Kauffman Stadium.

Numbers on the prospects KC picked up
AAA: John Buck C .300/.368/.507 (11 E in 61 G)
AAA: Mark Teahen 3B .275/.381/.391 (0 HR in 69 AB)
AA: Mark Teahen 3B .335/.419/.543 (6 HR in 197 AB)
AAA: Mike Wood SP 2.80 ERA (4.20 ERA), .241 AVG, .298 OBA, 6.6K/9IP.

I don’t know. A catcher, a third basemen without power, and a pitcher with an inflated win total and not a lot of strikeouts. This could turn out to be yet another Royals/A’s trade yet. In Wood’s defense, there’s a lot of unearned runs on that stuff. Someone can’t field on the Rivercats.

There’s a good chance I’ll sleep thru doing this tommorow. We shall see.

Oh wow, actual day games. Gotta do this a little quicker.

Best Game
STL (42-29) vs CHC (40-31)
Clement (7-5, 3.07) vs Carpenter (7-2, 3.95)

And we’re right back where we started, 2 games seperate them, though the rest of the division has inched a little bit closer.

A subplot, or at least one until battiers started getting ejected and relivers started indicating to their manager that they’re #1, was a match up of the two best third baseman in the league. Which is good if not actually true:

VORP – NL 3B top 5
Rolen STL 40.7
Lowell FLA 31.7
A-Ram CHC 29.4
Beltre LAD 27.8
Castilla COL 21.4

Top 3 should all probably make the All-Star team, though I wouldn’t be surprised if one ended up on the Last Man In ballot instead. Between this selection, Melvin Mora and Hank Blalock having good AL seasons, and the best player not named Barry moving to third, the position seems to have recovered from a lack of interesting and good talent the last few years.

Worst Game
DET (31-39) vs KCR (28-40)
Robertson (5-3, 3.76) vs George (1-0, 4.01)

One of the things you quickly realize about doing these previews is you’ll usually end with one game a day where you hvae absolutly noting interesint to say. This is that game. The AL Central is often that game – but I think it’s because the AL Central is easily the most boring division in baseball.

Story by Divison

• AL East: Yankees vs Red Sox? can they all finish in the same order again?
• AL West: Did the Angels buy the division? Can Beane pull off another big deal? How far are the M’s going to fall? Can Texas stick around all season?
• NL East: Champions – but Marlins still don’t get no respect. When will Bowa explode and will he finally be fired? The sad end of the the ’90s Braves.
• NL Central: Three team race? Everyone but Pittsburgh still in it at the end of June?
• NL West: Barry Bonds. LAD vs SFG with the Padres maybe sneaking in.

And then there’s AL Central. You’ve got the Twins vs the White Sox in the third year of a direct rivalary that’s captured the imagination of no more than five people who don’t live in Minneapolis and wherever the White Sox play. There’s no credibility in winning the division leading anywhere, because the AL Central crown has just meant a playoff cameo and out in five games. The other three teams are in a non-competitve mode, ChiSox collapes aside, and not bringing much to the table.

There’s no Bonds or Prior or D-Train or (pick a Yankee here) in this division. There’s Pudge, but he’s on a non-competitive team. There’s Carlos Beltran, but not for long. Frank Thomas’ mid-career lost seasons have stripped him of his superstar aura. Torii Hunter is a highlight creation – someone who gets time in the post game coverage but isn’t a draw to go on. There’s no guy here who I want to go out of my way see. Which makes it kinda boring.

At least to me. Maybe I just hate the AL.

Closest Game
OAK (39-31) vs ANA (39-32)
Mulder (8-2) vs Ortiz (3-5, 4.68)

Split the series so far has allowed Texas to pick up a game on each team, and turned this into a second place battle. It’s probably too soon to imagine that end of the season series to have the same effect?

Reports after the fact had Houston believing the “Dotel to OAK, Beltran to HOU, prospects to KC” deal was as good as done, which would at least explain why they were clearing outfield space last week. Given Dotel’s own problems closing games for Houston, I think the A’s might have gotten lucky not doing it. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure, but one man’s mentally scarred closer has a good chance of being a mentally scarred closer for you as well. It wouldn’t be Oakland without the big deal, but maybe they should avoid going after one troubled setup man turned closer when they already have one guy who failed at that transistion.

Lopsided Game
NYY (44-25) vs BAL (29-38)
Vazquez (7-5, 3.43) vs Ponson (3-9, 6.49)

Ah, Javie and the Fat Man.

We’ve got one of the moves that’s worked out the best from the off-season – Giambi playing the field isn’t good, but given Nick Johnson’s season, he would’ve been doing it anyway, and Vazquez has been great in April and June – and one of the worse, with the O’s paying $7.5 for the 14th worst pitcher in the majors this season. O’s are playing about a million dollars per Ponson win.

K/9
2003 Pre-Trade: 6.08
2003 w/Giants: 4.50
2004: 4.77